Peatland Code could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions

A new Government-backed code has been launched that could slash UK carbon dioxide emissions by 220 million tonnes and protect rare wildlife by restoring moors, bogs and mires.

The Peatland
Code is unveiled at the World Forum for Natural Capital in Edinburgh on 23
November following a successful two-year trial, which has seen businesses fund peatland
restoration projects in southwest
England, the Lake District and Wales.

The Code is based on research by academics at the University of Leeds
and Birmingham City University, which revealed that sustainable business
investment could reverse the degradation of peatlands and significantly cut
greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor Joseph Holden, from the School of Geography, who led research, said: The peatlands of the UK
are our own version of the Amazon rainforest. They need to be protected. They
are home to some of our rare and endangered wildlife.

They also act as a huge
store of carbon, with perhaps as much as 3.2 billion tonnes, greater than the
amount of carbon soaked up every year by all of the worlds oceans combined.
The UKs peatlands are also important source areas for the provision of clean
drinking water while protection of many of our peatlands may reduce flood
risk."

UK peatlands, which are wetlands made up of decomposed plants,
currently lock away more than three billion tonnes of carbon, are the habitat
of rare wildlife and act as a natural filter to drinking water  but over 80% have
been damaged.

The Peatland Code sets out key environmental guidelines and has been
drawn up by the International
Union for Conservation of Natures (IUCN) UK Peatland Programme.

It targets
the restoration of one million hectares of peatlands over the next five years and
these restored sites alone could save 220 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by
2050.

It also offers detailed carbon reduction statistics for organisations investing
in pre-approved projects so they know the real-world environmental benefits of
their funding.

Professor Mark Reed, who led research at Birmingham City University,
said: The call of a curlew or cotton grass quivering in the wind are sights
many of us may associate with our often solitary, yet beautiful moorland
landscape.

But we remain blissfully unaware or unappreciative of the many
benefits we derive from these unique peatland habitats.

The research has won awards for its impact, including a commendation
earlier this year from the Higher Education Funding Council for England as part
of its Research Excellence Framework, for demonstrating "very considerable
impacts in terms of [its] reach and significance".

Peatlands cover around 10% of the UK and store more
than 20 times the amount of carbon as all the countrys forests.

Clifton Bain, Director for the IUCN UK Peatland Programme, said: The
Peatland Code provides the business community with a chance to lead on a
sustainable approach to our planet.

Currently the Code has been stringently designed with carbon benefits
in mind, but it is very much a flexible approach, with the ability to later
adapt to showcase the additional benefits of peatland restoration as knowledge
in this area grows, and if required, fit with future Government work on natural
capital and greenhouse gas accounting.